Age-old debates over self-love and self-denial continue in the Christian community. Many regard self-love as incompatible with the self-sacrifice of Christ. Others, especially feminists and liberation theologians, contest the notion that self-sacrifice is the test of authentic Christian love. The resolution to this dilemma, argues Gerald Schlabach, lies with St. Augustine.
In this engaging book, Schlabach examines how Augustine reconciled self-love and self-denial in a unified Christian love. He demonstrates the crucial role that continence played in Augustine's teaching. It is much more than an attitude toward sexuality. Rather, it is the operative mode of Augustinian caritas.
Addressing historical theology, contemporary Christian ethics, feminism, and pastoral considerations, Schlabach traces the role that self-denial played in Augustine's teaching. He argues that an integration of self-love and self-denial enables us to distinguish true Christian self-denial from mere victimization and that the good we seek when we love—whether directed toward neighbor, enemy, or self—is not self-serving but rather a participation in a mutual relationship with God and His creation.
Through this critical retrieval of Augustine's thought, Schlabach shows that self-denial is meaningful only when ordered to a higher good, as when Christ endured the suffering of the cross. He demonstrates practical applications of how charity working through continence can maintain right self-love and proper self-denial in our daily lives, and proposes that Christian self-sacrifice is the willing acceptance of a good derived from working on behalf of others.
Schlabach rediscovers a unity of Christian love and opens up new resources even for readers skeptical of St. Augustine. His work offers provocative reading for all who are concerned with keeping their lives and work rooted in the Christian tradition of love and service.
About the Author :
Gerald W. Schlabach is Associate Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., and the author of To Bless All Peoples: Serving with Abraham and Jesus (1991) and And Who Is My Neighbor? Poverty, Privilege, and the Gospel of Christ (1990).
Review :
"Love is a key theme in Augustine, perhaps the key theme. In this consideration of Augustine's treatment of self-denying love, Schlabach counters the traditional interpretation of Anders Nygren, builds on the work of John Burnaby and Oliver O'Donovan, and considers the question of feminism, critiquing his own Mennonite tradition with regard to the self-denial practiced by women. With a critical eye he tries to understand how Augustine reconciled self-love and self-denial. After studying the relevant texts, Schlabach considers what it would mean to reappropriate Augustine's idea of love in a contemporary context and presents seven theses concerning the relationship between self-love and self-denial. This model of the dialog that can take place when a classic author's thought is brought to bear on contemporary issues is recommended for theological collections and larger public libraries." —Library Journal
"This is a provocative and engaging study, well-informed, thoughtfully developed, insightfully resolved." —American Benedictine Review
"This sustained development of a topic that has seemed to become a matter of partisan perspective receives a fresh treatment...the perceptive and coherent presentation of the issues deserves a careful reading." —Revue des etudes augustiniennes
"This book offers a fresh interpretation of Augustine's thought from a Mennonite perspective. Schlabach's masterful attempt to relate Augustine's insights to contemporary ethical concerns highlights the continued need to retrieve/resurrect the voices of the silent victims of grasping, manipulative incontinence." —Journal of Early Christian Studies
"This study offers fresh perspectives on perennial questions. It is a valuable exercise in ressourcement, finely balancing historical scholarship with pastoral engagement." —Theological Studies
"Gerald Schlabach turns to the pages of Augustine to explore the tension between self-love and self-denial. In so doing, he guides the reader through Augustine's understanding of charity, continence, and living this interplay as a pilgrim in a world of doubt, temptation and trial...here is a helpful and illuminating work on Augustine's pursuit and understanding of love." —American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly
"Of the making of books there is clearly no end, and of the making of insightful books on Augustine—such as this one by Gerald Schlabach—one can be pleased that the commonplace is true. Open to a number of audiences (students of Augustine, ethicists, Christian feminist theologians, among others), all of whom will gain much from reading the volume carefully." —The Mennonite Quarterly Review
"...Mennonite theological engagement of another tradition at its best. Schlabach has not forgotten that he is Mennonite, yet through his creative, careful engagement of Augustine he has retrieved riches not only for those Christians who call themselves Mennonite but for all Christians who take seriously our Lord's call to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow the One whose loving embrace includes us as it extends toward the redemption of the whole world." —The Conrad Grebel Review, Winter 2002, Vol. 20 No. 1
